1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a coated film for packing sliced foodstuffs, in particular cheese slices, which film is wound about the foodstuff in the form of a tube lying flat and completely encloses said foodstuff. The two edge zones along the longitudinal axes of a base film overlap and are joined to one another by means of a full-surface or partial heat-sealable coating on a base film.
2. Description of Related Art
A packaging for sliced foodstuffs having an essentially rectangular surface area, in particular for cheese slices, is described in EP-A 0 372 348, which packaging comprises an optionally printed film which is wound around the foodstuff to be packaged in the form of a tube lying flat and completely encloses said foodstuff. The heat-sealable coating extends in strip form in the vicinity of and parallel to one edge of the film and essentially comprises a heat-sealable olefin copolymer. The outside of the packaging has a coating of a silicon-organic compound, for example a polydialkylsiloxane, whilst the film comprises a polyester or a polyolefin, in particular propylene polymers.
In order to prepare a packaging from such a film it is known to shape the film into a tube and to fill the heated, viscous cheese composition into the tube. The filled, tubular film rope is pressed flat and the cheese rope, which is now in strip form,, is subdivided by transverse web-like zones into individual filled sections which are still joined together. In order to cool and solidify the hot cheese composition, the film/cheese rope in strip form is fed through a waterbath and air is then blown onto the outside of the film in order to remove the water still adhering. Finally, the rope is subdivided into individually packed cheese slices in the region of the transverse web-like zones and the individual packs are stacked.
A polyolefin film where one sealable surface coating comprises polydialkylsiloxane and the other sealable surface coating has polydialkylsiloxane only on the outer surface has been described in DE-A 35 09 384. The multilayer film according to DE-A 35 17 795 also comprises a polydialkylsiloxane at least in one of the two non-sealable surface coatings. Both films can also be used for packaging purposes. However, neither publication provides those skilled in the art with an indication as to how to solve the problem of preventing blocking of an inadequately dried packaging.
Currently there are adhesion problems between the films used and the cheese of some cheese recipes. When the slices are unpacked, cheese adheres to the film, to a more or less pronounced extent depending on the temperature. The consequence of this is that the cheese slices are no longer shiny after unpacking but have a matt appearance.
In the case of the films used hitherto, depending on the type of installation, a relatively large amount of residual moisture still adheres to the film surface after blowing with air. As a result of this residual moisture, the coefficient of friction of the film surface is impaired and problems arise when stacking the individual packs. Consequently waste quotas are high in the sorting and stacking operation.